1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a female-type metal terminal fitting that is prevented from slipping out by a lance provided on an inner face of a connector housing when the female-type metal terminal fitting is attached to a terminal-receiving hole of the connector housing.
2. Background Art
FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate an example of a female-type metal terminal fitting that is prevented from slipping out by a lance provided on an inner face of a connector housing in a related art when the female-type metal terminal fitting is attached in a terminal-receiving hole of a connector housing.
This female-type metal terminal fitting is disclosed in JP-A-2008-41315.
The female-type metal terminal fitting 101 is a metal terminal fitting that is formed by press forming a metal plate and, as shown in FIG. 8, includes a case portion 110, a lance engaging portion 120, a biasing portion 130 and a wire connecting portion 140.
As shown in FIG. 9, the case portion 110 is a portion in which a tab 210 of a male-type metal terminal fitting is inserted.
The case portion 110 has an angular tube shape including a bottom plate portion 111, both side plate portions 112 that rise up from both side edges of the bottom plate portion 111, and a ceiling plate portion 115 that is extended from an upper end edge of one side plate portion 112 so as to connect the upper ends of the both side plate portions 112, and is formed by folding a sheet of a metal plate.
In the case as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a front plate portion 116 that covers a front side of the angular case is formed by folding at the front end of the ceiling plate portion 115. Thus, as shown in FIG. 9, a tab inserting portion 117 for inserting a tab 210 is formed at a lower end of the front plate portion 116.
The lance engaging portion 120 is a portion where a lance 221 in the connector housing is engaged at a rear end portion of the ceiling plate portion 115 of the case portion 110.
The biasing portion 130 is a plate spring that presses the tab 210 of the male-type metal terminal fitting that is inserted in the case portion 110 to the bottom plate portion 111 so as to maintain the tab 210 in a contacted state with the bottom plate portion 111.
The biasing portion 130 is the plate spring that is provided as extending inclined to the front end side of the bottom plate portion 111 from the rear end of the ceiling plate portion 115. The front end side of the biasing portion 130 is folded in an upper direction and a front end portion 131 that is a free end is made to contact the inside surface of the ceiling plate portion 115.
A wire connecting portion 140 is a portion where wires are press-contacted, and is formed to extend to a rear side of the case portion 110. As shown in FIG. 8, the wire connecting portion 140 includes a sheath fixing piece 141 that is clamped to a sheath portion of the sheathed wire and a wire pressing piece 142 that is clamped to a conductive portion of the sheathed wire.
However, in the female-type metal terminal fitting 101 that is prevented from slipping out by the lance provided on the inner face of the connector housing, when a tension force (a force in a direction of the arrow T1 in FIG. 9) affects the wire connecting portion 140 from the wire that is connected to the wire connecting portion 140, a compression load P1 affects the lance engaging portion 120 from the lance 221 provided in the connector housing as a reaction.
Thus, in the female-type metal terminal fitting 101 disclosed in JP-A-2008-41315, since the biasing portion 130 is extended from the rear end of the ceiling plate portion 115 that is set as the lance engaging portion 120, there is a concern that the biasing portion 130 may be deformed accordingly and the pressing force to the tab 210 from the biasing portion 130 may be varied when the lance engaging portion 120 is bent by the compression load P1.
The variation of the pressing force of the biasing portion 130 to the tab 210 causes decreasing of connecting characteristics between the metal terminal fittings due to the variation of the contact pressure between the metal terminal fittings.